


Matching Tattoos

by camichats



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, M/M, Marauders' Era, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-09-07 23:19:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8820304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: James and Sirius get matching tattoos and Remus minds his own business.





	

**Author's Note:**

> (reposting from when this work was deleted)

Near the end of fifth year, Sirius was the one to approach James with the idea of getting a tattoo. The Marauders’ Map was a success, as were their animagus transformations, and Sirius wanted to do something to commemorate the events. He just wanted James to go with him to the parlor, but of course he refused to let Sirius do something like that alone, not that he was going to mention that to him straight away. 

“What are you getting?” James asked, pushing aside the weak thought that getting a matching tattoo was maybe assuming too much-- there was nothing to assume, Padfoot was his best mate, always would be. 

Sirius handed him a small piece of parchment with a date on it. “This and underneath, probably walking pawprints.” 

“Probably?” 

Sirius grinned at him. “I live on the edge, Prongs.” 

“I’m sure that’s what all the puppies say,” he replied with a smirk. 

They pushed each other around a bit, laughing all the while, as they made their way through Hogsmeade, passing by Three Broomsticks to get to the seedier parts. Hogsink was a few storefronts away from Hogshead and they agreed to drop by after to talk to Ab, who was always good for dry humor and a lot of bitterness. 

“D’you think I should get walking hoofprints since you’re getting pawprints? Keep up the Marauder motif.” 

Sirius stopped walking abruptly and stared at him, James having to turn around to look back at him. 

“What?” James said innocently. 

He raised an eyebrow. “You’re getting a tattoo.” 

James rolled his eyes and walked to him, slinging an arm over his shoulders and starting towards the shop. “Marauders’ solidarity, Pads.” 

“Then where are Moony and Wormtail?” he asked challengingly, not actually making any moves to stop their progression. 

James scoffed. “Pete would be too nervous to stay still for it-- probably would hate the pain too-- and Moony would say he ‘shouldn’t encourage a bad-boy image’ more than he already has.” 

Sirius nodded in agreement, letting out a sigh of uncaring defeat and putting his arm up to join James’s. “Hoofprints would be good for you.” 

“Where were you thinking of getting it?” 

“At Hogsink,” he said cheekily, incurring a slight slap to his head, which was really more of a tap to convey the sentiment of slapping someone’s head than anything else. “I dunno. Wanted it on my arm, but that would invite questions.” 

“Fuck other people’s questions,” James said resolutely. 

“If you get yours there too, I bet most people wouldn’t even bother,” he suggested. 

James snorted. “Yeah probably. They think we’re such a mystery, but it’s just inside jokes.” 

“That’s what all mysteries are, my deer,” he said sagely. 

James held the door open for him, and Sirius curtsied before walking through. 

When Remus saw their tattoos later-- walking hoofprints and pawprints respectively-- he just shook his head fondly. 

A few weeks later, the Marauders’ Map was finally complete. James and Sirius had finished it, solving an overly complicated Arithmancy problem that Remus didn’t care to continue trying (and honestly couldn’t make head nor tails of). After the next Hogsmeade trip, they came back with a sequence of numbers on both of their necks. Remus guessed they each had one half of the problem it had taken to complete the Map. 

Sirius also had “Mischief Managed” written in block letters above his wandering pawprints. James had three new bands encasing his own walking prints, but Remus had to give in and ask what they were for after two days of wondering. Sirius touched the bands and the solid black coalesced to say “I solemnly swear”. 

Remus blinked. “Is that coded to Sirius specifically?” 

They both nodded and Remus had to leave before he blurted out  _ Just kiss already! _ It was their business and he would let them figure it out. 

…Or he’d wait over summer and then tell them if they were as clueless at the beginning of sixth year as they are now. There’s only so long he could live with mutual pining, after all. 

They weren’t dating when the new school year started, but Remus held that they were much closer to finding out the truth of their feelings, and decided he wouldn’t say anything explicit. 

He didn’t know that they got together when Sirius was kicked out and disinherited, didn’t know that Sirius had run his fingers over the coded bands on James’s arm and tracked the hoofprints, didn’t know that they’d gone out to get phoenix tattoos the next day to show Sirius’s new life, and he certainly didn’t know that they’d first kissed because a high-on-life Sirius claimed he wanted to see if he could taste the phoenix’s rebirth fire on James. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr [@siriuslystarbucks](http://siriuslystarbucks.tumblr.com/)


End file.
